It told me that my PM was getting low. I am confused because the numbers above show that I have only used approx 1/3 of each 330ml tank. The most I have used is GY (114ml) and that one is not registering low, whereas the PM (93 ml used) is registering low.

The ink in the 330ml tanks is not in a "bag" like some of the epson carts so just rolling the cart in your hand gives you a good idea how much is left. I just turn the machine off and pull the cart in question. There is no (ok, a drop) ink left in the cart when the machine says it needs to be replaced. This makes me think that "empty" is determined by a sensor and not calculated. All of my empty 330ml carts have weighed 113 or 114 grams as well. I don't have a weight for empty 700ml tanks yet, full is 933/935 grams. I can't get useful info from my accounting tab for comparison because my 8300 computer boards have been replaced.

Lisa, remember that when you install the original cartridges that a huge amount of ink is used in filling the lines to the print heads. If this is a newish printer a lot of ink will be in the system, but not yet 'used' for printing. However, even with my 6300 and 130ml cartridges it may only be half a cart. Then again I expect the 8300 has much longer lines to the print heads. Some ink is also used for regular head maintenance so it is conceivable that one could buy a new printer and only use it rarely, but still actually use a lot of ink without printing much. Not sure why it would pick on that one colour though.

If the accounting is to be believed then it is telling me that 2/3 of the ink is used for maintenance (which I am assuming does not show up in accounting). I am a very low volume user and most of my use to this point has been learning the machine, printing a few calendars, and 10 24x36 canvases. Since I am not using it every day (once per month is more likely), do not leave it on 24/7. I am just now ramping up to accept printing orders from other photogs.

Yes, this is a new printer on its first set of inks. As far as I know they were full inks.

I am starting to wonder if I should just outsource my printing because at this rate it is costing way more that what I have seen reported ($0.62/square foot).

I am not sure if there is a bug in my printer or if what I am experiencing is normal.

Lisa, my experience with the 6300 is that it is quite a frugal printer (if you can call any printer frugal). The cleaning cycles are mostly done in the background so I have rarely been aware of any clogs - in fact my previous 6100 performed faultlessly over four years and much use. When I change the maintenance trays they held about 450ml of ink - which is quite a bit, though that was over a year or more of quite heavy printing. I am assuming your printer came with 330ml cartridges, because the 6300 comes with 90ml starter kits, and then the normal cartridges are 130ml. And as I said earlier a lot of ink will have been sucked into the feeder lines when you first installed the heads - though of course this will not need to be done again.Overall I would not consider any of these printers suitable for occasional use. Mine is used most days - sometimes for one small print, other times printing non-stop for several hours. They are surely not designed to be left off most of the time, and then fired up for one-off jobs. I am sure they will do a huge amount of head cleaning in this case and you could easily use more ink for cleaning than for printing.

If the accounting is to be believed then it is telling me that 2/3 of the ink is used for maintenance...Since I am not using it every day (once per month is more likely), do not leave it on 24/7.

This is something we've discussed in great detail on the Canon iPF wiki. If you're turning it off and leaving it off, it's most likely doing a cleaning (which uses lots of ink) every time you turn it on and print. It's much much better to 1) leave the printer on 24/7/365 and 2) print at least an 8x10 every single week. This will drop your ink waste considerably (a huge amount), extend print head life and reduce other problems (like air bubble in the lines). These printers are meant to be used and bad things happen when they are left off for periods of time.

Thanks for that Scott. I leave my printer on all the time and had hoped it would reduce ink in cleaning cycles.

Leaving it on allows it to perform certain maintenance on a regular basis. That alone, isn't enough however. We need to print at least one 8x10 per week to avoid excessive cleaning cycles. The ink used in this one 8x10 is minuscule in comparison to what's wasted in cleaning. These printers need regular use.

What I heard about my 8300 back in the beginning is that it has an ink reservoir of some kind for each channel that is filled up during initial fill, so even if you pull your ink cart out and it seems totally empty you may still have a lot of ink in the system.

For instance right now when I pull my 330 ml Blue Cart out it feels like nothing is in the cart at all, but my machine indicates that I am no where near being low on blue ink.

The rest of my carts are 700 ml so it's hard to tell with those. What I like about my HP is that the monitor tells you exactly how many m liters of ink you have left in the software menu. With my Canon it's often difficult to know where you stand until you are very near the danger zone.

As for calling "colors". IMO diluted versions of the same color shouldn't be called colors like light grey and light light grey. the canon had blue red orange and green along with the usual cmyk lmlc and greys. the hp skips cyan uses blue, but has lc still (i think). as for the best color it seems to be a toss up. canon seems to always be described as best for lighter gentler midtones and lights (something i'm more interested in) and the epson has better darks.